911 tape could bolster Marine vet's story

Andrew Tahmooressi tells dispatcher he mistakenly entered Mexico

Tahmooressi 911 call

A 911 recording of a former U.S. Marine sergeant telling a dispatcher he mistakenly entered Mexico with three weapons could bolster his account as high-level efforts to free him from a Mexican prison continue.

During a conversation that Andrew Tahmooressi had with his sister Wednesday night from a prison east of Tecate, he remembered making the emergency call the night of March 31 after crossing the border at San Ysidro.

A copy of the 911 recording was then obtained by the office of Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, who has been spearheading efforts to bring the combat veteran back to the United States.

“Hi, I’m having a little bit of an emergency here,” Tahmooressi tells a San Diego County emergency services dispatcher. “I am at the border of Mexico right now. My problem is, I crossed the border by accident and have three guns in my truck, and they’re trying to possess, they’re trying to take my guns from me.”

Mexican authorities ended up arresting Tahmooressi and accusing him of trying to smuggle the U.S.-registered weapons, which were all loaded. Tahmooressi, who told U-T San Diego that he was being treated in San Diego for post-traumatic stress disorder, tried to escape from prison and cut his throat with a broken lightbulb during the early days of his confinement. The 25-year-old Florida native has since said he just wants to return home. He is scheduled for a May 28 court hearing in Mexico.

During a jailhouse interview, he told U-T San Diego that he was traveling on Interstate 5 to San Ysidro to meet friends when he mistakenly entered Mexico. But the head of the Mexican customs office in Tijuana said earlier this week that Tahmooressi neither claimed to be lost nor revealed that he served in the Marine Corps.

During the 911 call, Tahmooressi told the dispatcher that he tried to find a turnaround point to avoid the border. She responded that there is such a lane but that he must have missed it.

“Unfortunately, you’re on Mexican soil. There’s nothing we can do. I apologize,” the dispatcher said.

Tahmooressi then thanked her and hung up.

His mother, Jill Tahmooressi, said Thursday that the recording validates what her son has said from the beginning.

“I am so thrilled because what has been coming out in the Mexican press does not represent the truth,” she told U-T San Diego in a telephone conversation from her home in Weston, Fla. “Andrew is utterly relieved, but he’s also hungry and desperate.”

She said her son had forgotten about the 911 call until Wednesday.

Hunter spokesman Joe Kasper said the tape may prove vital in the campaign to free Tahmooressi.

“People get lost down there all the time,” Kasper said. “He was thinking he was still on the U.S. side of the border. The 911 call clearly shows it was an accident, and it gives him a lot more credibility.”

While Tahmooressi isn’t due in court until late this month, his mother said his Mexican attorney is planning to file a revised petition in light of the 911 tape.